I am because I am! means I exist because I exist and need no justification whatsoever for my existence. The fact of my being is enough. I require no terms, conditions or permits from myself or anyone else. I live, and in living I am fully entitled to go on living. My life, my existence, my being is not predicated on standards, values, achievements or accomplishments. I am, not because of books I write, money I earn, degrees conferred, children I have—I am with or without these accouterments. These things and people are not me! I do not exist because of them. Relative to my life, they exist because of me.
— Compassion and Self Hate, Theodore Isaac Rubin
